The George Mason High School boys and girls cross country teams headed out to Great Meadow in The Plains early last Saturday morning for a large invitational meet, with teams from schools of all sizes from across the region. Hundreds ran in each of eight races, and each race had anywhere from seven to 10 Mason athletes competing.
Blaise Sevier led the Mason girls Varsity A team and cruised to a ninth-place finish overall in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:36. Next in for Mason was 10th-grader Grace Eye in 59th place with a time of 21:08. She was followed by Mia Sawyer, Kaitlin Kutchma, and Brooke Meinhart, earning Mason 15th place out of 26 teams.
The boys Varsity A team followed in a very competitive, tightly packed race. The boys were elbow to elbow until the final hill. Truman Custer was first in for Mason in the 5,000-meter run at 17:10, in 41st place, followed by Jackson Jost in 46th place in a time of 17:14. John Marshall (113th), Austin Gogal (121st), and Preston Custer (127th) rounded out the scoring for the team, placing 17th out of 30 teams.
The JV underclassmen girls, with many runners new to the sport, placed second overall. Logan Funk placed fifth with a time of 21:14, and Estelle Timar-Wilcox was right on her heels in sixth place with the same time. Emma Smith placed 17th, Lucy Hoak placed 37th, and Megan Jenkins placed 47th to earn the points for the second-place team finish.
The JV underclassmen boys team also saw many strong performances. Patrick Field was first in for this group with a time of 21:21 (152nd place), followed by Jarret Wood (22:11) and Neal Marshall (22:12). Houston Langford and CT Dodge were close behind.
Hot and dusty conditions did nothing to slow Beamlak Hailamariam of the Junior/Senior boys, who was first in for Mason in 15th place with a time of 19:20. Jonathan Gilmour (54th), Noah Saberhagen (80th), Charlie Field (84th), and Andrew Hokaj (85th) worked together to earn the team a ninth-place finish.
For the Varsity B boys, Justin Divecha placed 35th (19:23), Ryan Calabrese placed 60th (19:56), Kiran Menon placed 67th (20:08). David Matz and Tyler Gogal were next in for the team.
The Mason runners have a meet next Wednesday, Sept. 18, at Central Woodstock High School, and will compete in another large invitational in Leesburg at Oatland Plantation on Sept. 21.
